Robert Franklin Gates papers

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Robert Franklin Gates papers

1910-1988

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9d311e740-03de-4049-91d8-ab87870ebc27

The papers of Washington, D.C. area painter and art instructor Robert Franklin Gates date from 1910-1988, bulk 1928-1988, and measure 2.3 linear feet. Found within the papers are biographical materials; letters from government agencies, museums, galleries, and colleagues; business records primarily concerning transactions with the Jack Rasmussen Gallery; artwork including scattered drawings by Gates and block prints by Joe Goethe and D. Neufeld; two scrapbooks; printed materials; and photographs of Gates, family members, models, artwork, and exhibition installations. There are also photograph albums and miscellaneous photographs documenting a 1936 voyage to the Virgin Islands commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Department. Biographical material includes resumes, biographical accounts, award certificates, records for employment through a State Department Specialists Grant, address lists, teaching notes, writings about Gates, and a guest book signed by colleagues celebrating Gates' forty years at American University. There is a also a group of Navy Department records documenting Gates' employment designing three-dimensional photo-surfaced topography models for use by troops during World War II.Letters are primarily from the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Works Agency discussing commissions, including the painting of post office murals in Maryland and West Virginia, and from various museums and galleries discussing exhibitions and other art-related activities. There are one or two letters each from colleagues Alice Acheson, Adelyn Breeskin, Charles Burchfield, Alida Conover, John Gernand, Duncan Phillips, Henry Varnum Poor, and Prentiss Taylor. Some letters are Christmas cards decorated with original block prints.Business records primarily document Gates' interaction with the Jack Rasmussen Gallery in Washington, D.C., but also include miscellaneous sales records and pay stubs from American University.Artwork consists of scattered drawings of modern houses by Gates and abstract sketches by others, and small block prints by Joe Goethe and D. Neufeld. Two Scrapbooks contain clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and scattered letters. Additional printed material includes clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs for Gates and others, prospectuses for art exhibitions, press releases, calendars of events, booklets about color and lenses, brochures for art schools and books, and an unannotated calendar containing a reproduction of one of Gates' paintings.Photographs are of Robert Gates, various family members including Gates with his first wife photographed by Prentiss Taylor, models, artwork, and exhibition installations. There are two photograph albums and unbound photographs documenting a 1936 voyage to the Virgin Islands commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Department. Images of this trip are of Gates and colleagues including Mitchell Jamieson, the ship Doris Hamlin, the crew, markets, a cock fight, miscellaneous buildings, town squares, and the countryside of the Virgin Islands.

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6630504

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 15 Entities related to this resource.

Phillips, Duncan, 1886-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64b3784 (person)

American University (Washington, D.C.). Fine Arts Dept.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hj2qdt (corporateBody)

Gates, Robert Franklin, 1906-1982.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jq14gb (person)

Painter, instructor; Washington, D.C. Gates taught in the art department at American University from 1946-1976, serving as chair from 1953-1957. He also taught at the Phillips Memorial Gallery (now Collection) art school. From the description of Robert Franklin Gates papers, 1916-1982. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 84451799 Robert Franklin Gates (1906-1982) was a painter and instructor in Washington, D.C. Gates studied under...

Dows, Olin, 1904-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66975cf (person)

Olin Dows (1904-1981) was a painter and arts administrator; he primarily lived and worked in Rhinebeck, New York. Dows was born in Irvington-on-Hudson, NY. He graduated from Harvard University in 1926 and also studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts. In 1935 he was appointed director of the Treasury Relief Art Project, funded by the Works Progress Administration. In 1938 he painted a series of murals for the post office in Rhinebeck, NY, and in 1941 painted murals for the post office in Hyde Par...

Gates, Margaret Casey, 1903-1989

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z03d2h (person)

Painter; Washington, D.C. Gates met her husband, Robert Franklin Gates at the Phillips Gallery Art School, where she worked as a secretary, 1933-1946. From the description of Margaret Casey Gates papers, 1933-1988. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82379681 Margaret Casey Gates (1903-1989) was a painter from Washington, D.C. Gates studied art in the studio of Bertha Perry, and from 1924 to 1926 at the Corcoran Art School. She later studied under Henry V...

Acheson, Alice

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kd20cx (person)

Painter, illustrator; Washington, D.C. Born 1895. Full name Alice Stanley Acheson; granddaughter of painter John Mix Stanley. Wife of Secretary of State Dean Acheson. From the description of Alice Stanley Acheson letter, 1944 March 2. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122565873 ...

Taylor, Prentiss, 1907-1991

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65148rd (person)

Prentiss Taylor was born 1907 in Washington, D.C. He studied at the Art Students League in New York City and became a noted landscape painter. He spent four months in Charleston, South Carolina in 1933 doing sketches of rundown buildings. Working for the W.P.A., he made a series of lithographs from these drawings. He was also an illustrator about stories of blacks in the South. He served as president of the Society of Washington Printmakers for 34 years and did pioneering work in art theorapy wi...

Phillips Memorial Gallery. Art School.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65v0p8v (corporateBody)

United States. Dept. of the Treasury. Section of Fine Arts.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6776679 (corporateBody)

Established 1934 under the Treasury Department as the Section of Painting and Sculpture. Name changed to Section of Fine Arts in 1938. In 1939, the Federal Works Agency was established and set up the Public Buildings Administration, which combined the Treasury Department's Public Buildings Branch and the Branch of Public Buildings of the National Park Service. The Section's function was to decorate new federal buildings. Unlike the other New Deal art agencies, it was not a relief project, but aw...

Knight, Jennie Lee.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65504wd (person)

United States

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f874hn (corporateBody)

Idaho became a state on July 3, 1890 with post offices being established as early as 1876. From the guide to the Franklin County, Idaho Post Office Location Records, 1876-1945, (Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives) These photographs document Region 4, started in 1910, of the US Forest Service, covering Utah, Nevada, Southern Idaho, and Western Wyoming. From the guide to the US Forest Service Photograph Collection., 19...

Gates, Robert Franklin

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6749rmz (person)

Robert Franklin Gates was born on October 6, 1906 in Detroit, Michigan. He studied at the Detroit School of Arts and Crafts, and from 1929 to 1930 attended the Art Students' League in New York. Between 1930 and 1932, Gates studied under C. Law Watkins at the Phillips Gallery Art School in Washington, D.C., later becoming an instructor in life drawing and painting there. During this time, he met fellow student Margaret Casey, and they married on January 7, 1933. Between 1934 and 1938...

Taylor, Prentiss, 1907-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hz4d7r (person)

Prentiss Taylor was born 1907 in Washington, D.C. He studied at the Art Students League in New York City and became a noted landscape painter. He spent four months in Charleston, South Carolina in 1933 doing sketches of rundown buildings. Working for the W.P.A., he made a series of lithographs from these drawings. He was also an illustrator about stories of blacks in the South. He served as president of the Society of Washington Printmakers for 34 years and did pioneering work in ar...

Jack Rasmussen Gallery (Washington, D.C.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q01dxs (corporateBody)

American University (Washington, D.C.). Fine Arts Dept.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65b757p (corporateBody)